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SMPTE Digital Processing Medal Award Recipients

2014
Barry G. Haskell

For his contributions to the digital transmission and coding of images over a 44-year career. Dr. Haskell has published over seventy technical papers and has over 125 patents. He is the author or co-author of three books, including one of the foundational books on MPEG. Dr. Haskell managed the compression research group at Bell Labs, making major contributions to the MPEG standards, and followed that at Apple Computer, where his research team made significant contributions to the H.264/AVC Standard.

Barry G. Haskell received the B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.

From 1968 to 1996 he was at AT&T Bell Labs as researcher and Dept. Head. From 1996 to 2002 he was at AT&T Labs as an AT&T Fellow. From 2002 to 2013 he was a Senior Scientist at Apple Computer. He has also served as Adjunct Professor of Electrical Engineering at Rutgers University, City College of New York and Columbia University.

Dr. Haskell has been very active in the establishment of International Video Communications Standards. These include International Telecommunications Union Video Coding Standards (H-series), JPEG for still images and MPEG for Digital Television.

In 1997 he was co-winner of Japan's C&C (Computer & Communications) Prize for his research in video data compression. In 1998 he received the Outstanding Alumnus Award from the University of California, Berkeley Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. In 2000 he received the Inventor of the Year award from the NJ Inventors Hall of Fame. In 2006, he received the Picture Coding Symposium Award for leadership and pioneering research. He has co-authored three books on video coding.

Dr. Haskell is a Life Fellow of the IEEE and a Fellow of Phi Beta Kappa.

2013
R. Norman Hurst
In recognition of his invention of methods for splicing MPEG-2 Transport Streams, the development of test bitstreams for evaluating video and audio compression equipment performance, and the development of electronic test patterns that enable evaluation of video encoding and processing systems through visual observation of the outputs they produce. The impact of these inventions has been felt in broadcasting, cable and satellite distribution, in the consumer electronics industry and in production, post-production and networking, in each case advancing the state of the art of the industry.

2012
Gary Demos
For his pioneering work in creating computer-generated digital special effects. For over 30 years, he contributed to the development of high-speed film scanners and recorders, created computer generated images, and created concepts to enable high quality image compression, and image processing and formats for high definition and beyond.